Console / E3 / Gaming News / Random things

E3 2011: Nintendo’s Conference (Liveblogging)

For our final live blogging coverage of E3 2011 we’ll be covering the Nintendo Conference this morning at 9am PST. If you would like to join us in our live blogging experience all you need to do is press the ‘More’ button at the bottom of this entry. Join us and send in questions or comments and we’ll do our best to publish them and respond.

Nintendo’s Conference is the big one this year. They are the only ones announcing a new console and Nintendo has already said they are aiming at bringing back the core gamer to their brand. We’re hoping to foam at the mouth over what they have to say.

After the conference ends we’ll get our final thoughts on Nintendo written up for the blog and end our conference coverage with a final summary of who wins, loses, and why.

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4 Comments
June 7, 2011
Console / E3 / Gaming News / Random things

E3 2011: Sony’s Conference, thoughts and Liveblogging

We were pleasantly surprised to see that Sony delivered a professional and mostly gimmick-free conference this year. Jack came out on stage as he usually does and gave statistics but this year they were wrapped in an apology. It went over well and even though Jack still can’t be taken seriously, it seems like Sony is at least ready to put their head down and move forward.

Nothing spectacular and jaw dropping came out of Sony, but what they did do was deliver continual bits of information on multiple games without getting too caught up in, as Graev says, smelling their own farts. They hyped the Move a little bit, but nothing on the circus level antics of Microsoft (we thought the Bioshock Infinte dev saying he used to hate Move but then liked it after he got paid off was funny; okay, he didn’t say that exactly). Starhawk and Dust 514 both got some attention as well. Dust 514 is a PS3 exclusive which neither of us had known before. Seems like it will function on the level that MAG does.

The big show for Sony was their new Vita handheld console (aka NGP). The big let down was that the 3g plan is with AT&T on top of a $299 price tag if you go the 3g model ($249 if you go Wifi only). The graphics on the games were all great looking from what we could see. The handheld Uncharted game and the Diablo clone (Ruin) looked nice and colorful with good controls.

Overall, no real solid complaints about Sony but nothing to memorable either.

Graev: It was really good. A lot better than Microsoft and the publisher conferences. Uncharted looks good. The new Sly game is cool. The Vita is something I do not understand. It’s a portable device that plays console games. I want a portable device that plays portable games and things unique to a portable from Sony. We saw a bunch of PS3 games that they are bringing over to the Vita, and that doesn’t interest me. I’d rather just play them on PS3. Unless you have a need to be mobile, why pay $249 (low end Wifi only or $299 + AT&T) for something you probably already own?

Keen: I was impressed by the balance they had in their presentation. Uncharted looked good, Resistance looked good, the Vita looked like it’s going to at least be a quality handheld, regardless of whether or not it’s one I would buy. I think the Move is still a joke. Some of the titles they showed like the Fantasy action game being on rails just once again prove the limitations and the gimmick of motion controls. By far it was better than Microsoft but not at the caliber I wanted from an E3 presentation. Maybe the most exciting thing for me was the cloud save from the Vita to the PS3. Would it take multiple copies of the game?

It’s also worth nothing that Sony is bundling at 24″ Playstation branded 3D TV, glasses, and something about Resistance for $499. The TV has some special technology that does split screen differently for coop so that the glasses show one person one thing and the other person sees a full screen of a different image. For the price and the bundle, it’s not a bad deal given the cost of 3D tv’s, but the size is still so small that it may not do us any good.

Original: It’s been a long day but the light is visible at the end of this tunnel.  Sony’s Conference begins in less than an hour and we’ll be Liveblogging once again.  We’ve been having quite a bit of fun making fun of how bad some of these have  been and drooling over exciting announcements.  We hope you’ll join us once again for what has turned out to be quite a successful day of liveblogging and interact with us while we bring you our immediate thoughts and impressions of what is sure to be an interesting conference from Sony.

Click for Liveblogging –> (more…)

8 Comments
June 6, 2011
Console / E3 / Gaming News / Random things

E3 2011: Ubisoft Conference Commentary

Ubisoft’s conference is finally over. We didn’t think it could get much worse than Microsoft but it did. We’re both in agreement on this one: They opened very, VERY, strong with Rayman Origins. It’s a platforming game that reminds us of Donkey Kong with what looks to be extremely fun coop play and stylized humor-laden fun. They sold us immediately on this title. It went downhill quickly.

For five minutes of monotonous jungle fighting, bad dialog, and cutscenes we were dragged along until finally they revealed Far Cry 3. From the way they presented this title alone we’re tempted to skip it. Nothing about that presentation made us want to go near the game or get excited. How they went from making Rayman a must buy to ruining Far Cry for us is a mystery.

Ghost Recon is going to flop. It looks dated, the gameplay looks boring, and they didn’t present it well at all. Compared to MW3 and BF3 this one won’t stand. We both thought that there’s a chance it might provide some coop play on the Army of 2 level, but at this point it looks too generic even with the futuristic toys. We’re passing on this title.

The rest of the conference was absolute garbage, with jokes like “Want to come over and play with my Wii” and shovelware, until Assassin’s Creed Revelations. It looks nice visually and carries with it the exact same Assassin’s Creed style. That’s good or bad depending on what you want, but for us it’s a step too far on the “more of the same” for our liking.

Original: At the last second we decided we’ll be liveblogging the Ubisoft conference. As we did with the EA conference, check back a few minutes after the conference ends for our written impressions.

You can access the live blog by clicking: (more…)

1 Comment
June 6, 2011
E3 / FPS/Shooter / Gaming News / MMORPG / RPG

E3 2011: EA Conference Commentary

Alright everyone, the EA conference is over and it’s time to bring you our overall impressions on what they brought to the show. We were expecting a big showing from SWTOR, ME3, BF3, and Reckoning. Did it happen?

They started off right away with ME3 but within five minutes it was over and all we had was a clip of a lot of cinematic gameplay and further reason to believe a lot more of the RPG elements are gone from Mass Effect to be replaced by action shooting. Need for Speed: The Runs (as Graev calls it) looked stupid.

Then, as the fanfare began, SWTOR took the stage. For 30 seconds. One of the Bioware Doctor’s got on stage and said something to the tune of: “We love this game, there’s so much we put into it, we can’t show you anything, so here’s a trailer of old footage”. It was really, really disappointing to show so little of such a huge title during their official conference. We know they’re showing more during the week, but seriously this is their chance to shine and they missed it.

Reckoning’s showing was nice. Unlike the rest of the games it looked like Reckoning showed mostly all in-game stuff. However, it lasted something like 30 seconds. We hop the guys at 38 Studios have more planned for the week as well because EA didn’t do you guys any justice.

EA fumbled big time by devoting half of their entire conference to EA Sports and Soccer. Whether or not it makes money, it sucked that it dominated the conference.

They ended with a huge sendoff by Battlefield 3 with a very, very long singleplayer Tank level. It was the wrong level to show because it was so boring. A lot of driving, a lot of tank battling at ranged, and not enough to get people excited. Then again, it was singleplayer and Multiplayer is where it’s at. They took every opportunity to slam Activision by announcing a FREE version of Activision’s “CoD Elite” (as predicted by us earlier this week) and announcing an Open Beta in September.

Our individual final thoughts:

Keen: I liked what I saw from Reckoning. The style catches my eye. Graev actually said he think it looks cool which is high praise. I like the Battlefield announcements. SWTOR needed more than 30 seconds of old footage, especially when a new trailer became available. The overall “Hi, this is our game’s name, here’s a CGI trailer, come to our booth” feel made this conference a let down.

Graev: Nothing to say other than it was really boring. Reckoning looked cool from what was shown. The BF3 tank level was super boring.

Original: EA’s E3 2011 Conference starts soon. We’re most excited to see what 38 Studios is bringing from Reckoning, Bioware’s SWTOR, and hopefully what EA has to show for Battlefield 3. Click ‘more’ to follow the live blogging where we will give you our honest first impressions, then refresh the page after the event to read up on our written thoughts.

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8 Comments
June 6, 2011
Console / E3 / Gaming News / Random things

E3 2011: Microsoft’s Conference (Liveblogging)

This year we’re trying something a little different. We’ll be liveblogging during the major E3 2011 conferences so that you’ll have our immediate thoughts and reactions to the biggest announcements of the year rather than having to read them as we publish them after-the-fact. If you’re interested in participating with any commentary, you can head to our Cover it Live page. We’ll see how this goes! Our test run will be with Microsoft’s Conference starting around 9:30am PST.

View the Liveblog in the ‘Read More’ section. (more…)

1 Comment
June 6, 2011